Nightmares
by RascalJoy
Summary: After Tartarus, Annabeth suffers from nightmares. Every night she finds herself jolted awake, drenched in sweat. There's only one consistent thing that calms her down. And he's right in cabin three.


**Hello, everyone! This fic is placed post "Heroes of Olympus." In case it's hard to tell, it's from Annabeth's POV. Please read and review!**

_A cold mist surrounded me. I shivered slightly as silky tendrils stroked my cheeks, dissipating soon after they made contact. I couldn't see anything, not even the ground. If I couldn't distinctly feel the rock beneath my feet, I would have thought I was floating. I could hear the screams of tortured souls, pleading for mercy as their torturers worked with deaf ears._

_ Percy. Where was Percy?_

_ I slowly crept forward, holding tightly to the hilt of my dagger as I scanned the mist, searching for any sign of my boyfriend._

_ I could feel my heart pounding against my rib cage, a bead of sweat trickling down the bridge of my nose._

_ Cold laughter echoed throughout the mist, sending shivers down my spine._

_ "I can see you," the voice taunted. "I can sense your fear."_

_ I whirled around, looking for the source of the voice. "Where is he?" I demanded. "What have you done with him?"_

_ The being chuckled slightly. "Oh, he's fine. An old friend of his is having a little fun with him right now. Gaea said that you must be delivered alive, but she didn't say anything about you being unharmed or sane."_

_ A shadow appeared off to my right, but before I could get a proper look, it disappeared._

_ A lump rose in my throat. "Y-you don't scare me," I called, trying to sound brave._

_ The voice tutted. "Lying to yourself won't do anything, girl. It would be so much easier to admit you're afraid. Surrender to your fears, and surrender to me. All I'm asking is for your sanity."_

_ I took a deep breath, trying to keep down a flood of panic. "Who…who are you?" I asked._

_ "You mean you haven't guessed?" the voice taunted. "Smart girl like you, I would have expected you to have figured it out already. I, my dear, am the spirit of Tartarus."_

_ My heart sank. If we had the spirit of Tartarus after us in his own realm, we were basically doomed. I gripped my dagger tightly, taking comfort in its familiar feel. "You still haven't answered my question," I said through gritted teeth. "Where is Percy?"_

_ I could practically see Tartarus's evil grin as he spoke._

_ "Oh, I'll show you. Not that you'll like what you see."_

_ A path opened through the mist, revealing the black stone floor of Tartarus. At the end of the passage, I could see a faint red glow. A very familiar laugh echoed down the corridor; it sounded like a knife grating against a stone. I could hear the cracking of a whip, each crack closely followed by a cry of pain. A very familiar cry._

_ I bolted down the path through the mist, ingnorant of everything except the tortured cries of my boyfriend._

_ Time seemed to slow down. I found myself moving in slow motion, like I was running through Jell-O. My heart stopped when I saw what was at the end of the passage._

_ Percy's hands were strung up over his head, which was drooping low over his chest. His back looked like a pound of delicatessen meat. A familiar golden figure stood over him, a whip held in his upraised hand._

_ "No!" I screamed._

_ The figure paused and turned toward me, a cruel smirk on his face. I was so startled I screeched to a halt; well as much as I could when I was still locked in slow motion._

_ "Luke?" I gasped in horror._

_ Luke laughed, the scar on his cheek rippling. "Oh no, dear Annabeth. I am Kronos, I assure you. I just hold the form of my former host." He grinned. "I'm so glad you could join the party. Unfortunately, I am a bit busy at the moment, so you can just stay there. I'll be with you in a moment." He flicked his hand and I found I couldn't move at all._

_ I watched helplessly as he raised the whip once more._

_ No!_

I jerked bolt upright in my bed, my heart trying to pound its way out of my ribcage. My limbs were tangled helplessly in the bed sheets and my hair and skin were slick with sweat. Gross.

I tried to calm my frantic breathing without much success.

I guess I should have been used to the nightmares by now. I'd had one every single night since Tartarus. And there was only one way that I've found that consistently calms me down each and every time.

I untangled myself from my sheets, trying to keep down my panic as the need swelled within me. I snatched my dagger off my bedside table, where its faint bronze glow served as a guardian against the dark. I slipped off the bed and crept toward the door of the Athena cabin by its light. I unlocked and opened the door as quietly as I could and darted outside, closing the door softly behind me. I stood in front of my cabin, scanning the darkness around me. I gripped my dagger tightly, and tried to gather my courage. I took a deep breath, and started across the grass.

It didn't matter how many times I'd made this trip before; it didn't change the fact that I was scared of the dark. No, I was terrified of the dark. In Tartarus, the darkness was all consuming. You wouldn't see or hear any danger until the last possible second. You had to constantly be on your toes, or else you'd be dead within seconds.

The shadows cast weird patterns on the ground. Monsters howled in the woods.

I held my dagger in front of me, both as a light source and as protection. My heart was still beating out a drum solo. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding as I reached the familiar door of cabin three. I tried the knob and realized it was locked. Panic surged inside me before I remembered that this was a nightly ritual for Percy and I: locking the door before we even dared to go to sleep. I reached under the doormat that had been placed there for one purpose only, and pulled out the concealed key. I unlocked the door and replaced the key in its hiding place. I turned the knob and pushed the door slightly open. I took a nervous glance around to see if there was anything behind me. Habit, I guess. Then I slipped through the door and locked it again.

I heard someone cry out behind me and whirled around, dagger raised. In the faint bronze light, I could see Percy thrashing around on his bed, occasionally calling out. I dashed lightly over to his side, careful to avoid Riptide (also placed as a night light) and gently shook Percy's shoulder.

"Percy," I whispered.

He jerked off the bed and landed at my feet in a tangle of limbs and bed sheets.

Normally, I would have laughed at such a sight, but I was still far too scared. I crouched down next to him and began untangling him from his sheets.

He stared at me, his sea green eyes filled with terror that quickly faded into relief. "Annabeth," he murmured. He held out his arms and I practically leaped into them.

I buried my face into his shirt, holding tightly to the one person who could keep me sane. An enormous sense of relief overcame me as I breathed his familiar ocean scent. He was safe. I was safe. Without meaning to, I broke into tears, sobbing into Percy's shirt.

"It's okay," he whispered, kissing me on the forehead. "We're together."

"I-I know," I hiccuped.

Percy gently helped me up and guided me to his bed. We lay down and hugged each other tightly, our legs intertwining so we could get as close as possible.

"What was yours?" Percy asked softly.

He didn't have to clarify any further. I knew what he meant.

In answer, I ran my hand under his shirt and traced the thick white scars that crisscrossed his back with my fingertips. Water had healed his wounds, but for some reason the scars stubbornly remained, a constant reminder of what had happened. I, myself, had more than I cared to count.

"Oh," Percy whispered. No more needed to be said.

"And yours?" I asked.

He sighed as if he was expecting that question. He probably was, since it was a nightly thing between us: 'you tell me your nightmare, I'll tell you mine' sort of thing.

"The mist," he said, so quietly I had to strain to hear him even though our faces were practically touching.

My throat clenched at the thought of it. The mist, or the spirit of Tartarus, was probably the worst thing that had happened to us, and that's saying a lot. Whenever we were caught inside it, it would show us all of our friends and family dying in the most horrible ways. You would run to save them only for them to die and dissolve before your eyes. That one had probably been ten times worse for Percy than it had for me, since his fatal flaw was loyalty. Seeing everyone he loved screaming his name, and then dying before he could reach them had been horrible for him. It had nearly driven both of us to insanity.

I closed the final two inches between us and kissed him softly on the lips. When we finally pulled apart, I buried my face in his chest, a sense of calm washing over me as we cuddled. I began to feel drowsy as I felt Percy's chin nestle into my hair.

"Seaweed Brain?" I yawned.

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, Wise Girl."

"Together?"

"Together."

That last word rang like a comforting echo through my mind, filling me with an enormous feeling of peace as I drifted into a restful sleep.

**So what did you think? I'm not a big romance person, so I don't know how the fluff scene came out. Please review! Constructive criticism is accepted and appreciated.**


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